• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Attorney David N. Cole II

Cole Law Office

Call Now To Speak With An Attorney
603-643-4500
  • Home
  • The Firm
    • David N. Cole II
    • Notable Results
  • Business Law
    • Business Litigation
    • Buying a Business
    • Contract Drafting
    • Corporate / LLC Formation
    • Debt Collection
      • Attaching Bank Funds to Collect a Debt
      • Attaching a Debtor’s Wages to Collect a Debt
    • Employee or Independent Contractor?
    • Selling a Business
  • Personal Injury
    • Motor Vehicle Injuries
      • Automobile Collisions
      • Bicycle Accidents
      • Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
      • Pedestrian & Passenger Injuries
      • Snowmobile & ATV Accidents
      • Truck Accidents
    • Bodily Injuries
      • Construction & Scaffold Accidents
      • Defective Premises
      • Dog Bites
      • Equipment Injuries
      • Hunting Accident Lawsuits
      • Medical Malpractice
      • Slip & Fall Injuries
    • Catastrophic Injuries
      • Amputations
      • Burn Injury
      • Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
      • Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
      • Wrongful Death
  • Civil Litigation
    • Consumer Fraud
    • Construction Law
      • Construction Litigation
      • Defective Construction Claims
      • Mechanic’s Leins
    • Defective Products
    • Evictions
    • Mediation & Arbitration
    • Prejudgment Attachments
    • Nursing Home / Elder Abuse
  • Employment Law
    • Employment Contracts
    • Employee Handbooks
    • Employment Separation Agreements
    • Whistleblower Retaliation Lawsuits
    • Workplace Injuries
    • Wrongful Discharge Attorney
  • Discrimination
    • Age
    • Disability / Handicap
    • Gender
    • National Origin
    • Race
    • Religious
    • Sexual Orientation
  • Family Law
    • Alimony
    • Child Custody
    • Child Support
    • Divorce
    • Protective Orders
  • Blog
  • Contact

Negligence Lawsuits

Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care to avoid a foreseeable harm to person or property. To prove negligence, several criteria must be met:

  1. You must show that there was a duty owed from one person to another. The nature of that duty may change depending on the relationship of the parties. Typically, persons owe a duty of “ordinary care” to other people. However, a child is held to a lower standard, that being what another child would do under the circumstances, as opposed to what an adult would do. Certain professionals and tradesmen are held to a higher standard, that being what other persons in that profession or trade would do under the circumstances.
  2. It must be shown that there was a breach of that standard of care. In other words, someone failed to do what they should have under the circumstances in light of the duty owed from one person to another.
  3. It must be shown that the breach of that standard of care was the actual and “proximate”, or legal, cause of the injury. This means that the injury was the foreseeable consequence of the breach of care.
  4. Damages must be shown to have resulted from all of the above.

If you or a loved one has been injured, call the Cole Law Office at 800-909-LAWS (5297) or contact us online. The initial consultation is free of charge, and if we agree to handle your personal injury case, we will work on a contingency fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary recovery of funds. In many cases, a lawsuit must be filed before an applicable expiration date, known as a statute of limitations. Please call right away to ensure that you do not waive your right to possible compensation.

Comparative & Contributory Negligence

Comparative and contributory negligence are defenses available to mitigate the amount that a defendant may have to pay to a plaintiff for damages. Each of these defenses is based on an assessment of fault towards the plaintiff. Depending upon the laws of the state where the case is venued one of three different versions of these defenses may be applicable. Pure contributory negligence is, by far, the most oppressive to the plaintiff. In those states that allow this defense if a defendant can prove that the plaintiff is one iota to blame for the accident, then he or she recovers nothing. For instance, if the evidence shows that a defendant was speeding and went through a stop sign and that the plaintiff was only one percent at fault because he or she didn’t swerve or brake quickly enough, then the plaintiff may be entitled to no recovery.

Less oppressive to the plaintiff and more prevalent are the two different versions of comparative negligence. The first version is what is commonly known as “pure” comparative negligence. In “pure” comparative negligence, the award of damages to the plaintiff will be reduced in direct proportion to the plaintiff’s percentage of fault, no matter what the ratio. For instance, if you are 30 percent at fault for an accident, you could recover 70 percent of your damages. If you are 70 percent at fault for an accident, you could recover only 30 percent of your damages. All of the other parties alleged to be at fault would then be responsible for paying you 30% of your total damages, apportioned between them in proportion to the amount of fault assigned to them.

The last of these defenses is also fairly common amongst the states. It is known as “limited” comparative negligence. With this version in order to be able to receive any damages, the plaintiff must be no more than 50 percent at fault for the injury. If the plaintiff is no more than 50 percent liable, but is still partially at fault, then the award of damages will be adjusted according to the plaintiff’s percentage of fault and the plaintiff’s award will be reduced accordingly. For example, suppose a jury awards you $100,000 in damages as a result of a car accident, but it finds you 30 percent at fault for your injuries because you did not properly use a signal. After applying comparative negligence, you would be entitled to $70,000 in damages – $100,000 minus 30 percent.

In the above example, the judge or jury determines the degree of the each party’s negligence and apportions to each party a percentage of the total damages suffered, based on each party’s percentage of fault for causing your injury. If you were found to be 51 percent liable, you would be unable to collect any amount.

Primary Sidebar

What is my Case Worth? Submit Your Free Case Evaluation

  • * - Required Fields · Privacy Policy
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Footer

Cole Law Office·65 Dartmouth College Highway
Lyme, NH 03768·603-643-4500
  • Home
  • The Firm
  • Business Law
  • Personal Injury
  • Civil Litigation
  • Employment Law
  • Discrimination
  • Family Law
  • Blog
  • Contact

Legal Dictionary

Home Safety Tips

Instructions for Injury Clients

Links & Resources

Copyright © 2021 · Cole Law Office & Altrumedia, LLC · All Rights Reserved